SeaWorld San Diego

Jill's Journal: That’s a dolphin! And that’s our child, feeding that dolphin. Wow. Talk about making a memory! We’re convinced SeaWorld is a wonderful/exquisite/perfect way to spend a day as a family.

We skipped the rides as we weren’t at SeaWorld for the amusement park aspect. Instead, we visited all the exhibits and went to all the shows. Opened in 1964 by four buddies from UCLA, SeaWorld San Diego is the original of what today also includes parks in Orlando and San Antonio. SeaWorld is most closely identified with its killer whales (all given the stage name Shamu), but there’s also beluga whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sea lions, seals, otters, polar bears, penguins, and so much more.

Madelyn particularly embraced SeaWorld, just as we thought she would, and she now wants to be a scuba diver when she grows up. It didn’t hurt that we splurged and took a behind-the-scenes tour. More on that in a minute.

This is Bodine, a 25-year-old, 796-pound male bottlenose dolphin. He surely made up the most wonderful part of our time at SeaWorld. Our behind-the-scenes tour began with feeding sea turtles over a fence, which was tame in comparison to our close-up time with "Bo."

The kids learned and practiced some of the training moves and signals used by the marine animal trainers. Bo was only too happy to oblige and show off his stuff. Forget the guinea pigs of last week; the girls all want pet dolphins now.

The girls each got to feed Bo repeatedly. The food was mostly small, intact fish, but he even likes jello. Yes, jello. Dolphins don’t eat jello in the wild, obviously, but in captivity, they eat it to help stay hydrated.

All three girls also got to spend a moment petting this happy and charming creature. Heaven.

We got to see a bit of SeaWorld’s massive marine animal rescue and rehabilitation operation. This is their primary occupation; the park is what funds this work and raises marine animal awareness.

One last stop behind the scenes…the moray eels. These freaky creatures are even freakier close-up and I couldn’t help but cringe around them. Rob was in wholehearted agreement. The girls did fine, however, and handfed them plenty of raw squid through special tubes. Madelyn fed them with particular gusto (I think she set some sort of eel-feeding record) and thought they were terribly cool. Yes, for those who are concerned, this is our child with a severe fish allergy. She’s allergic to even the touch of the proteins in cooked fish; happily, raw fish poses no such problem.

The shows were, of course, so much fun to see. The girls loved them.

At the end of the day, we even visited with a pig…

…and a kangaroo. Not quite marine animals, but SeaWorld also puts on an amusing pet show featuring dozens of rescued dogs, cats, and random other animals. It’s not often one touches a dolphin and a kangaroo in the same day. Needless to say, we absolutely loved our day at SeaWorld.

Kentucky Down Under

Jill's Journal: After our cheesy dinosaur experience, I was skeptical about taking the girls to Kentucky Down Under. It’s billed as Kentucky’s “piece of Australia” and we almost skipped it, but I’m so glad we didn’t. We’re not homeschooling yet, but this would have made the perfect science day. What a kid-friendly place!

The girls learned about so many animals native to Australia and particularly loved the dingoes, wallabies, and laughing kookaburras (birds). They got to touch a small python and get up close and personal with a bearded dragon. Witnessing chores done on a sheep station was another highlight.

But the best part was the kangaroos! The girls loved getting to pet two different breeds of kangaroo and even got to lift up the tail of one to feel how heavy it is (really heavy). They got to pet an emu (an ostrich-like bird) and dig through its feathers to find its skin. And they got to hand-feed lories (small, colorful parrots). The lory pictures are my favorite. Victoria and Madelyn wanted absolutely nothing to do with these birds after one landed on each of them, but were delighted to watch me feed them (they wanted to “look with their eyes, not with their hands!”). Erika was brave, or at least tried to be, and I snapped several adorable pictures before she, too, had enough!